Kodak Hero

Hi All,

For those of you who caught my printer problem (Pointless thread) comments, the printer is in the bin. The flood of ink inside proved too much to cleanup easily (economically) and my hands could give Shrek a run for his money (what was black ink is now green staining)

So we've been looking at what's available and am tempted by the Kodak Hero.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

Regards

Bernard

Kodak printers in the USA are great. The ink for them is also cheaper than most and lasts longer. The only thing bad IMHO is the resolution. Just don't print out photo's and you'll be fine.

Source: Network Administrator for Intel

I have the Hero 5.1 and I have to say, it's a brilliant printer. It's got everything you'd expect from a multifunction printer+ the convenience of wifi.
The print quality is decent for all your daily needs (photos look fantastic if you use the right paper).. the ink lasts forever (i'm a student and have printed about 20 reports with the sample ink that came with the printer until it ran out). And when you DO run out, you can replace both cartridges with original Kodak ink for £20!
So all in all, it's a good printer for a decent price, though my only concern is the prospect of after-sales services and warranties since Kodak seems to be going in the gutter

I have an all-in-one Kodak ESP7 which was bought as an office machine and I've been stunned by the photo quality, so much that most of my day to day print work under A4 is now produced on it.

As amama says it is ridiculously economical and Kodak papers are barcoded to ensure optimal print quality.

There is something slightly unusual about Kodak prints however, they look very different under daylight and tungsten

Very happy with my Kodak all-in-one (ESP 3200) too, occasionally there are very faint lines on the prints but I found an 'advanced dot placement mode' box to check in the settings, which would probably cure this and improve the print quality even more. I didn't really expect 'lab quality' prints so the quality is a real bonus.

As Ken says, it's great to load the paper and just let the printer select the optimal settings.

It also seems a pretty reliable printer. Unlike some others I've had, notably Epson

I find I have to quite regularly use the maintenance settings such as align and clean to avoid those lines. I think its lasted longer than any other printer I've had.

Well that's 4-0 for Kodak it looks as if part tomorrow will be spent in town looking at what's on offer/sale.

I've chewed through (and up) many different printers over the years as a sales rep. The best one I had was the HP which is now in the blue bin, and that was still in good working order after over 57k prints.

Biggest snag was the horrendous cost of the cartridges which I could get through on a daily basis when really busy. That's all behind me now so any printing is purely for personal use and if the Kodak promise of being the cheapest ink is true then so much the better.

Thank you all for comments

regards
Bernard

I have been very happy with a nicely discounted end of line Canon Pixma MG6150, good scanner and very nice print quality. If you can find one for around £100 then I think its a lot of printer for that price. I think its been replaced by the 6250 which is quite expensive I think.

The inks are on the pricey side. I was caught out over Christmas and had to buy a full set from Staples, 6 cartridges about £90.

I dont print loads so this doesnt have such and impact on me (which is why I didnt have any stockpiled)

I'd only had it a few days when I noticed, but it's a very infrequent issue and so slight even the affected prints were better than what I would have expected for something which isn't a dedicated photo printer.

Have you had any experience using non-Kodak paper in it Ken? Sometimes I fancy using 'art' papers.

Yes, I bought some sample packs of 'fine art' papers by three different manufacturers (cant remember who now but one one was probably Calumet) from Calumet and they were all awfull.

I read somewhere that Costco's own brand 'Kirkland Signature' paper worked very well.

The Kodak Ultra Premium takes some beating.

Ah, I'll give that a miss then! Thanks Ken.

Settled on the Kodak Hero 5.1, currently on offer in Curries and couldn't find it any cheaper on the net.

On the face of it, it does all we want (and more)

PC prints to it via the router (printer connected by WiFi).
iPad refuses to find the printer, it finds our network, so this needs further investigation. (Despite Gartmores assertion, in another thread, that iPads are intuitive - I must disagree on that - at least from my point of view).

B&W prints cleanly to cheap photocopy paper
Colour ditto (have yet to get photo paper)

Surprisingly noisy when started from cold as it goes through its check-dance routine, but then quite acceptable.

Scanner works OK for full sheets, but has some quirks for separating out sections of a page as it likes to find pictures. I'll stay with my HP flatbed for that function.


So looks good so far, we'll see after a dozen reams have go through it


Bernard

I found some cheapo 210gsm matte photo paper from jessops- 50 for £9 :O, been looking good so far.

@Ken, I have noticed that my B+W prints too have a strange purplish/blue colour cast on them when viewed under tungsten light- completely unnoticeable under daylight... not sure why

Just to throw this in a a thought, don't buy a printer!

What I mean is, if you need a printer then buy a laserjet. The Samsung CLP-325W is a bargain for under £100 and the long term running costs are much lower, espcially if you don't use it often (ink dries up!).

If you want a multifunction then Staples have a fabulous Canon Pixma for £40 which is also a scanner, copies and fax.

Then take (or rather send) your photos to a lab. IMO the cost per print is actually slightly lower (due to the wastage you get at home) and the quality is higher.

Just a thought